Man killed in College Park was stabbed, bludgeoned, documents show

When James Clark left home May 31, he kissed his wife goodbye and promised he would keep in touch throughout the day.

But she didn't see him again until his decomposed body was found inside a friend's College Park home 11 days later.

Clark had been stabbed more than 30 times in his head, neck, arms and torso, and then he was beaten with a hammer and another blunt object before his body was left to rot inside the downstairs unit of a duplex on West Princeton Street in Orlando, according to authorities.

The 56-year-old victim's death was detailed in more than 1,200 pages of documents released by the State Attorney's Office on Friday.

Xin "Leo" Liu, 24, a close friend of the victim's who was initially charged as an accessory to murder, is the suspect in the killing.

Liu was arrested June 12 — one day after Clark's mangled body was found inside a laundry room in his apartment.

Clark was beaten so badly that a medical examiner who conducted his autopsy was forced to use fingerprints to identify his body, the documents said.

Liu was indicted on first-degree-murder charges last month, and Liu's landlord, Jeremy Hrabal, who found the body, also faces charges.

The records show detectives had to unravel lies from both suspects before making the arrests.

After Clark's wife hadn't seen him for several days, she wanted to report her husband missing, but she said Hrabal and Liu — both close family friends — convinced her that Clark had checked himself into rehab and was not in danger.

She believed them. But records show that was a mistake.

Clark's body was discovered only after another tenant who rented the unit above Liu's apartment complained of a horrible stench that was seeping into his home and attracting flies for nearly a week.

After days of dodging Hrabal's questions and claiming that the smell was coming from dead rats inside his apartment, Liu was forced to let his landlord come inside, records show

But when Hrabal found the body, he didn't rush to police.

The documents say Hrabal drove Clark's truck, which had been parked outside Liu's apartment since May 31, back to his home and gave Liu time to leave the apartment and contact his mother — all because he believed Liu was a "good kid."

Several hours passed before Hrabal finally called police.

"I have a dead body ... in my lower unit in my backyard that's been there for several days and ... the way it was discovered is the, the stench," Hrabal told a 911 dispatcher.

Documents indicate that because he waited so long to call police and was suspected of helping Liu move Clark's truck and possibly tampered with other evidence, Hrabal was arrested and charged as an accessory to murder.